Chapter 557 - 380: Many Tales of the Small Town (4)
Malin had attended dinner at the old Ding Qi’s home for three days in a row, showing ample respect to the elder—originally planning to leave at noon on the third day, but the train crew found several parts that needed replacing, so he ended up waiting half a day longer.
When the train was finally ready to depart, the half-human appeared and gave Malin some rather unwelcome news—the thief hadn’t been found, but he suggested it was likely the work of a traitor from the local Thieves Brotherhood, and added that if Malin did encounter him, dead or alive didn’t matter, it would be two thousand Mowish on sight.
Malin smiled and decided to let the fellow earn this hard money himself.
"Do you still hold a grudge against me?" Malin asked the half-human before leaving.
"I do." The half-human nodded candidly: "Apart from a formidable opponent, the rest were brothers who have followed me for over a decade... Your Excellency, does the word ’brother’ sound particularly foolish coming from my mouth?"
Facing this question, Malin was silent for a moment, then shook his head: "...You are a soldier under Whitehead, normally speaking, they aren’t your brothers, but after acting for twenty years, those brothers of yours are no longer the peers who sweated with you on the training ground, so it’s not foolish of you to use that word. It proves you haven’t gone mad, even though indeed, they aren’t your brothers."
For some reason, Malin reached out and patted the half-human on the shoulder: "Your brothers are not them, nor the ones sitting in offices, or those lofty bigwigs, but those who are willing to sacrifice themselves for the innocents of this realm, for all those young ones facing hunger and cold, igniting themselves."
"...Thank you, Your Excellency." The half-human smiled and wiped the corner of his eyes: "You’ve seen my embarrassment."
"May I ask, what made you start doing this in the first place?"
"My father was a member of the Brotherhood, I thought what he did was wrong, so I joined Whitehead’s intelligence division incognito, but I was eliminated during the political vetting, but... Catalia told me to go back, he said the organization needed my sacrifice."
"Standard noble speak." Malin shook his head.